Dementium adds voice to Puerto Rican metal revolution

As part of an ongoing revolution, Puerto Rico launches a quality metal band every few months. In this case, Dementium — featuring Organic Infest bassist/composer Jose “Chewy” Correa on bass — create a fertile mix of styles from the late 1980s, mixing majority speed metal material with death metal influences. However, the core of this album breathes the more intense varieties of speed metal like came from Exodus, Kreator and Destruction.

Using the tried-and-true German formula of fast verse riffs with periodic melodic insertions balanced against slower choruses full of rhythmic hook, Dementium stack riffs against one another in songs that generally conform to a verse/chorus structure. However, these solid constructions detour into related riff clusters like a person lapsing into daydream, and these variations prove to be varied and to enhance the mood. This kicks the band out of the strident chanting repetition that killed many of these bands.

Although the style comes from the past, a number of updates shine through. For example, percussion fits more into the later Metallica pattern of sparse but energy-inducing rolling beats. Riffs take advice from later death metal and Correa’s melodic bass underscores the compositions like a cross between Sadus and Iron Maiden. Vocals mix the Kreator shriek and the Sodom chant with the bouncy energy of later Exodus. It provokes a desire to see the style grow with this promising new band.

21 comments

… and yet you don´t see a Sadus, Exodus or similar bands review on this site. Why talk about this faceless also-ran band? Just cuz it’s from Puerto Rico?? Who cares??
Countless bands have been ignored by this staff on the speed and death metal crossover genre it surprises me this lame band is even considered writing about!

I am worried that the misinformation you are spreading about cheeseburgers is going to have a negative impact on our children. Cheeseburgers are delicious, have high protein content, and are a staple of American cuisine. Using cheeseburgers as a symbol to represent the proletariat is slanderous and demeaning to those of us who believe the consumption of cheeseburgers is a time-honored tradition. I believe cheeseburgers foster spiritual growth and reinforce family values. It is important we feed our children cheeseburgers at a young age lest they grow up into Godless Marxist vegans that listen to metalcore and enjoy getting pegged by their polyamorous girlfriends. Please, think of the children.

Organic Infest rules the world! We all know that since the early 90s, I for a change, enjoy the album precisely because of the bad production but we’re not talking about Infest but
Lame-entium or Dementium.
Sorry Chewy but if you think everything you do is gold then somebody needs to tell you you are delusional.
I just mentioned Sadus cuz it was mentioned in the article but lets talk about all the “less known” speed-death bands that never made it to this site and were clearly better than Dementium!! I mean, if you’re gunna talk about this band then you might as well talk about at least a couple dozen that were playing this style back in the mid 80s!!
There’s not one single review of say: Morbid Saint, Sacrifice, Dark Angel, Devastation, Sacred Reich, Necrodeath, Infernal Majesty, Protector, BloodFeast, Prime Evil, Num Skull, Viking, Anacrusis, Hobbs Angel of Death, Acid Reign, Gammacide, Exhorder, Demolition Hammer … (and if there is it’s a negative review). If these fucking classics didn’t make it, why this Puerto Rican band. Oh I know, it’s cuz you’re friends with Chewy.

Again…you are in all your right to feel or think different and I respect that completely….what I don’t respect is disrespect itself….if you are to say that you don’t like something wouldn’t it be nicer if you say for instance….I don’t like this band and I think that there are bands more deserving of an interview or an article….it is not your point of view that is wrong my friend, it’s your disrespectful way of saying it…..
On another topic…..my dear friend I am not delusional about anything…and I surely know that not everything I do will be liked by everyone or is “gold”….and yes Brett is a good friend and someone that I deeply respect and admire…but I know that event then if I do something not worthy at all he’ll be the first to tell me because that is what true friends do…..
I am really sorry about all this….my apologies if I said something disrespectful….it is not my style…..and thanks for mentioning that Organic Infest rules the world ha ha I wish it was like that…….take care “OBAMA” best wishes!!!

my dear Chewy, I understand I could have phrased my opinion in a respectful more prudent manner but where’s the fun in that ? things are always TOO calm here at deathmetal.org,,, agitate the chicken coop fellersss !!!!! and you are one of the sacred cows of the site so…

There are no reviews because those bands are old and fucking busted. They’ve been talked to death and have been reviewed to death on other sites, give it a rest. Old school is Old school and it’s good to discuss it but there’s a reason why it’s been left in the past. This is a new band you apparently dislike to hell and back so just get your shit straight and say you don’t like the band and don’t try to fucking stick up for shit that has been talked about 20 million times before.

As others have mentioned, we’re sort of a lone voice for quality/spirited metal in a world obsessed with popularity. Thus, we find it where it can be found. My work here is far from perfect but hopefully improving.

My dear OBAMA CARE FOR THE WIN…..first of all just because you don’t know of the existence of a band it doesn’t mean that it’s a faceless also-ran band!!! Unless you know all the bands in the world in alphabetical order (ha ha ha) sorry!!! I respect you opinion even with your insulting tone, and even when it’s coming from a faceless also-ran person…..you don’t see reviews on Sadus, Exodus or similar bands because you can read about them everywhere…and this site is special and unique and not a copy from everyone else…..ahh and about your opinion….Who cares???

Exodus was relevant 25+ years ago, everyone knows about them. This is silly, a news blog cant be The Codex of Ultimate Metal. On top of that I’m sure new Exodus stuff would warrant a news blog post, a sadistic review or even a full review.

Just sadistic reviews. It’s practically metalcore. I also see early Exodus material as a ‘proto-metalcore': always focusing on the ‘mosh parts’ (now the “breakdown”), with nothing of substance in between. I’m not just talking about their so-called “90’s Metallica syndrome” when bands played slow “groove” rock album either.

I’m a big fan of Rick Hunolt and, to a lesser extent, Gary Holt but I can agree that Exodus stopped making good music a long time ago, and even when they did it wasn’t anything special. I really don’t see how they share anything with metalcore though, Exodus songs even up to 2004 were certainly not about “mosh parts”. Now if you said they made fairly generic thrash, especially of that choppy rhythmic variety that directly led to Pantera, then I can certainly agree. Even Pantera is not metalcore though, even in spirit (beyond just vapidity).

Because how often do you hear about some kind of band like this coming from a shit island in the middle of fuckin nowhere. Who cares? People interested in that island’s scene. This band’s slated to begin recording an EP at the end of the month, so maybe this little article might spur some fucking interest on the group.

Countless bands have been ignored boo fuckin hoo. You wanna write something about some “faceless also-ran” band that you apparently like and think they’re “worth” writing about do it your fucking self. Nobody really gives a shit and there’s countless metal sites on the fucking internet detailing obscure underground bands from here to your granny’s rotting anus. There’s thousands of fucking bands in the genre, if you’re getting pissed some nameless band from Puerto Rico is getting written about instead of some other nameless band ripping off Exodus’ Bonded by Blood from Buttfuck, USA then my best advice would be to get fucking bent.

By the way, there is a Num Skull DLA review, there’s been one probably a decade before this site started. The rest of the bands you mentioned, do you really want to see a serious review of them? Most of them would be quite faint praise, they aren’t that good (Acid Reign???). I do wish there was a spotlight on albums from that era of metal from time to time though, it’s the most fertile time for metal and you can’t really skip away into the future without an eye on the past.